“I think poverty to a large extend is also a state of mind,” Carson, a neurosurgeon, told SiriusXM Radio in an interview released Wednesday. “You take somebody that has the right mindset, you can take everything from them and put them on the street, and I guarantee in a little while they’ll be right back up there.”

Carson added that someone with the “wrong mindset” who has been given “everything in the world” will continue to stay poor.The Housing and Urban Development Secretary also added that the government can help impoverished individuals, but cautioned against what he deemed as programs that keep people in poverty, reports The Washington Post.

Read more on Carson’s previous comment about slaves being immigrants on NewsOne.